The Adventure Pals

The Adventure Pals

Developed by UK studio Massive Monster and published by Armor Games Studios, The Adventure Pals is a magical adventure about friendship and courage. Playing as a young boy named Wilton, you’ll explore the world in search for his father, who has been kidnapped by the evil Mr. B. Accompanied by his cute giraffe Sparkles and his little friend Mr. Rock, Wilton will face many challenges and help countless NPC’s in need in a colorful but perilous world inspired by classic platformers and cartoons. Now grab your wooden sword, ride your giraffe and follow us in this review!

THE GOOD

The Adventure Pals is a 2D adventure game about exploration and discovery. You explore the map, reaching villages and locations with NPC’s that give you missions that unlock stages and arena’s to adventure in. In these locations is where all the action takes place: you fight enemies in each level while searching for the exit that takes you to the next level. To get there, you’ll face loads of enemies that you can dispatch with your wooden sword, bombs or your trustful allies. Sparkles, the giraffe, can activate switches, pull Wilton closer to enemies (helpful to build combos!) and use its tongue as a helicopter, what allows you to control your air time while jumping. Mr. Rock will attack enemies, protect you and activate switches.

Gameplay has some RPG aspects too. As you progress, Wilton receives experience and levels up, gaining access to new abilities for you to choose from, granting some level of customization according to your play style. Between the abilities for you to choose, you can find counter-attacks, more space in your backpack for items, more attack or defense for Mr. Rock and many other options. A simple but significant addition to gameplay that gives some depth.

The Adventure Pals has a good number of collectibles for you (assuming you are a player who enjoys searching for them) to go after. As you adventure through the game, you’ll find stickers for your sticker book and cupcakes that can be exchanged for collectible hats (that you can wear when browsing Cupcake king’s inventory).

Graphics in The Adventure Pals are superb. It was the first thing that got my attention in this game. The world is so rich, colorful and full of things happening around you. Characters and enemies are quite weird (it looks like all of them came from Adventure Time TV show), but well animated. It’s a very child-friendly game, so you can enjoy it with your kids with nothing to worry about.

Music and sound is equally great! Music is cheerful and perfectly matches the style of the game. Sound effects are also very good, complementing the package. And I’m happy the developers haven’t used voice actors to dub characters… it may sound strange to think this way, but I felt the game is great without voices. It’s part of the magic to imagine the characters speaking.

To complete the package, you can play with a friend in coop mode (couch-coop only).

MIXED FEELINGS

I totally understand that the game aims for a younger public, but combat is much too easy for this game. You can smash the attack button with little to no preoccupation when facing a screen full of enemies. Bigger or shielded foes add some variety, but it still feels too easy. Maybe adding different difficult levels could increase the challenge for an older public.

There are many funny lines and puns in dialogs with NPC’s, but sometimes it looks like the game is pushing this humor too far and end up becoming that old uncle at your cousin’s birthday party: he and only he thinks he’s funny.

THE BAD

Hmmm… maybe the fact that you can only play coop with a local friend, but not an online one.

The Adventure Pals [Score: 90%] The team from Massive Monster has clearly put an unmeasurable amount of love and dedication into this game. They developed a magical adventure that can be enjoyed by players of all ages. It feels like a Pixar movie: created for kids but loved by adults. With outstanding graphics, music and gameplay, The Adventure Pals is a tale of bravery that feels like a cartoon in a world that you want to live in. A tale that’s absolutely worth playing!